Connection in Oaxaca, Mexico
Martedì 24 Aprile 2007News from Zenas
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Latest word from Mexico, assembled by Bill Mixon from e-mails from
Mark Minton and Bill Stone:
On April18, 2007, Sótano del Río Iglesia was connected to Sistema
Huautla. A crew was sent to recheck a dig at the end of the
Canadian’s 1967 map, and the alleged impenetrable mud choke turned
out to be a crawlway with a howling wind. It was only 60 meters to
the connection into the Sótano de San Agustín section of Huautla,
where Matt Covington and Yuri Schwartz came out in the Fool’s Day
Extension shaft series, about 60 meters above Tommy’s Borehole. The
connection came during eight days of camping in Iglesia, both in the
Penthouse and in the 1967 camp at -450 meters. Besides Matt and
Yuri, Vickie Siegel, Bill Stone, and David Ochel were involved in
the underground-camp push. The connection has increased the length
of Sistema Huautla to over 61 kilometers; its depth in unchanged.
Higher in Sótano del Río Iglesia, about 1.5 kilometers of new
passages were found by Bill Steele, Diana Tomchick, Mark Minton, and
Yvonne Droms, providing several alternate routes from the river
entrance to the Penthouse, dropping in through domes in the ceiling
of the huge room. The relatively small expedition has not so far
found a way to follow the main Río Iglesia river deeper, though.